Executive Director of East SOS on the Current Resettlement Challenges for Evacuees
Kateryna Skrypova, Executive Director of the East SOS Charity Foundation, spoke with Radio Svoboda about the current situation regarding the resettlement of evacuees in Ukraine.
Key points from the conversation:
• While funding is available for housing renovation for evacuees, most international support is concentrated in frontline regions.
At the same time, significantly less assistance reaches remote and relatively safer areas where evacuees are often relocated. As a result, host communities are forced to rely on their own budgets or seek private donations to repair and equip accommodation facilities.
• The most acute challenge is the placement of people who require constant care.
There is a severe lack of appropriate housing for individuals with limited mobility – particularly elderly people and persons with disabilities. Currently, there are only about a hundred such facilities across Ukraine, while the actual need is much higher. This situation creates a “queue for life”: evacuees are brought to transit centers and must wait until resettlement teams can find suitable long-term accommodation. As a result, the ability to evacuate people from dangerous areas is directly dependent on the availability of free spaces for both temporary and permanent housing.
• It is crucial to develop sustainable solutions for people who are able to live independently after evacuation.
This includes access to affordable housing – such as rental options, housing subsidies, and mortgage programs – as well as support in finding employment and integrating into new communities. According to Kateryna Skrypova, this is part of a broader strategy – preserving human capital so that people can continue to build their lives in Ukraine with dignity and stability.
The Executive Director of East SOS emphasizes that resettlement approaches must be flexible, taking into account both the diverse needs of individuals and the real capacities of host communities.
Read the full article for more insights.
Photos: Jose Colon, Tommaso Fumagalli.
The East SOS team recently participated in the 3rd Forum of Psychological Services in Kyiv.
